When Fate Can't Keep its Hands to Itself

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi had been surprised at how little she had felt at the news of Romi Jade's recent fate. She had known the other woman for over a decade, since the time when they were both Padawan learners in the days of the Galactic Republic, entangled in the war. And somehow, over all these years, the Force had had a habit of leading them back together - first in the Jedi Enclave on Deneba, and again later it had been Romi who saved Amilthi from the frozen wastes of Eira Pechal and brought her to the Praxeum. And yet when she disappeared from existence, transformed into and was replaced by another person, Amilthi experienced and reacted to the event mostly through its impact on Coren. One might have thought it callous - there should have been regret and disappointment, thoughts of what she could have done to prevent the misfortune. But Amilthi's surprise at her own reaction, or lack of it, was not a negative one. While she was ready to do everything in her power to prevent bad things from happening, once they had happened and were a thing of the past, it was best to let go of them so that they could not extend their maleficent influence into the present and the future.

She had thought much about it after her recent conversations with Coren, but had found that she could conclusively put the matter to rest - not foreclosing, of course, the perspective of getting a hold of Romi and putting matters right; but that was future-oriented thinking again. Now, however, a totally unexpected occurrence had brought the topic to the forefront of her mind. The Praxeum had received a jumbled message that, upon closer inspection, turned out to have been encrypted with no key known to the database. Amilthi was not a slicer, but a mathematician of sort, and she had quite enjoyed engaging with the problem. Nevertheless, no progress could be made - until it occurred to her that the message might be of a personal nature, but ill-addressed. She had invited the members of the Praxeum to download the file and decrypt it with their personal keys, if they had such. And in this process, it had turned out that the message was encrypted with a personal public key Amilthi had used during the time of the Jedi Order on Deneba. It was meant for her.

Disconnecting her data pad from the network, Amilthi made sure that the clear text would not leave her possession, and retreated into her chamber to read it...

[member="Romi Jade"]​

 

[UserSpace106]

And what was she now? Some probably saw her as a traitor...a hypocrite now that she'd succumbed to the very thing she'd sworn to combat. In a moment of reflection, she thought back to her childhood...the years she'd spent trailing her Master, the friends she'd come to know during her tenure as a full fledged Jedi...the things she'd achieved in her career thus far. Now though, what was she?

For those who knew her, knew she was fiercely loyal. She'd always kept her promises and stayed the course. She had embarked on a mission that was greater than her, and for that? She'd take whatever titles people wanted to throw at her...because she'd put herself on the line in order to protect everything she'd known. It was a risk befitting of her, but only a course fitting for true Jedi willing to lay their souls on the line.

"encoded message"

Ami-

If you've received this message, I need you to drop everything and make way for Deneba. Travel to the remains of the enclave...there's a lot at stake and-

I need your help. I'll explain everything in person. Tell no one...and leave no trace. You're one of the few I can trust with this.

The balance is shifting, I know you feel it...and I believe there's something we can do about it.

Just trust me.

- Mynnic

[member="Amilthi Camlenn"]

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi looked at the message on her screen for several seconds with a completely empty mind; and it wasn't the good kind of emptiness that one achieved by meditation, but a rather dull sort that was the result of her consciousness being wiped clean by surprise. She regarded that empty mental slate for a while before her mind adapted to the unexpected enough to begin the work of integrating it into her view of the world and being exploring the consequence. Once at that point, it didn't take long for her to arrive at what was essentially a unique hypothesis as to the origins of the message. The form of address and the reference to Deneba were a bit of a give-away.

The whole thing sounded rather stereotypically like a trap, and viewed from that perspective her astonishment was perhaps unwarranted. It actually made perfect sense. At the same time, the probability of the alternative was, however minuscule, not zero. It was convenient that in either event, the course of action was essentially the same: a trap wanted to be sprung, and a friend wanted to be helped.

***​

It was a strange feeling to be returning to Deneba in precisely the kind of ship she had more than once flown out of the Enclave's hangar. She had done as the message had asked. She had told no-one, and who was there to tell? Coren had enough on his mind as it was, and there was no point in twisting the knife in his wound. He wouldn't have left her go alone if he had known what this was about, and he might have taken it the wrong way and in any event worried unnecessarily if she had been secretive about it. And nobody else was used to being appraised of her whereabouts, either. And she had left no trace, no was she leaving now, approaching the planet in her stealth starfighter with active concealment measures activated.

The scanners picked up no unusual activity, and what was more, Amilthi felt oddly calm despite the potentially precarious situation she was approaching. Not even the ruins of the Enclave itself, reminder of tragedy as they were, unsettled her. She noted the unusual absence of a bad feeling of apprehension.

She touched down at some distance, behind the next ridge and out of sight from the remnants of the building. While she could probably have found a place to land there, it seemed safer to keep the ship hidden out of the way so she wouldn't be stuck on the planet if something went wrong.

Wrapped in her black robes, the hood drawn over her head, she stepped through the broken gates into what had once been a warmly welcoming entrance hall, now filled with rabble. Nature was already reclaiming the place, treating it as rock like any other. Lichen had taken a hold on many surfaces, and sand was everywhere, brought up by the winds from Deneba's dry plains. Even in this state, it was peaceful.

[member="Mynnic"]​